Exploring the Crossroads of Art, Craft, Reading, and Creative Writing with Alisa Golden

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Tiny Shiny Books: Glitter and Glam

If you have ever been exposed to glitter you know that once it touches you it hangs around for awhile. A speck on the cheek. In the mac and cheese. The neighbor cat's fur. Since most of us encountered glitter in grade school art projects its presence remains with us if nowhere else than in memory.

Little girls are particularly susceptible to glitter and its tiny shiny allure. As they grow up they are told to leave their glitter use behind and to embrace matte finishes and practical materials. Generally, I have adopted the serious nature and work of artmaking, but not without joy, and periodically not without indulging in the guilty pleasure of using shiny iridescent materials, primarily pearlescent inks.

Occasionally I teach a workshop called "Tiny Shiny Books" where we unabashedly embrace our inner glam artist. In other workshops when we paint paper I say, "use pearlescent inks sparingly, for accents perhaps, or to highlight certain areas," but in this one I encourage everyone to buy one bottle of FW pearlescent ink and bring it to share. (I think the names speak for it such as: hot mama red, volcano red, waterfall green, sundown magenta, and birdwing copper.) The first time I offered the class at the San Francisco Center for the Book it was completely full.

Giving ourselves permission to indulge the concept further we made miniature books—small is cute—with a tied binding that I devised (I included it in Making Handmade Books, which is finally available!) Everyone seemed relieved to have an outlet for their inner glitter girl, so I guess the desire for sparkle really never leaves, after all.

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About Me

Alisa Golden is the author of Making Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings, Structures & Forms (Lark Crafts, 2011), and Painted Paper: Techniques & Projects for Handmade Books & Cards (Lark Books, 2008), among others. She makes books under the imprint never mind the press and teaches bookmaking and letterpress printing at California College of the Arts. She holds a BFA in printmaking from California College of Arts and Crafts (now CCA), and an MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University. Her stories, poems, and art have been published widely, and she founded and edits the online and print magazine, Star 82 Review.

Golden is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Earned fees are recycled back into books reviewed for blog posts.